Well, considering that the list of minis/troops removed entirely from the game can be counted on what, one hand, maybe two, and that all armies/factions/sectorials remain playable, if not in active development, ought to temper some of the misgivings.
I would also add that it the amount of complaints about how Tohaa have not received/are not receiving and how CB is not communicating with us is somewhat undercut by the fact that Carlos said in his seminar at the first Major US tournament of 2018, that Tohaa would not be receiving anything in 2018, as CB's resources were spread too thin making all these human factions, to be able to focus on designing wild aliens. As much as people have narrowed their focus on Triumvirate being the first Tohaa Sectorial and how it has been revealed as being NA2, lets not forget that the other proposed Tohaa Sectorial that has been floating around just as long Triumvirate, is the Exalted. All NA2 armies, other than JSA, used existing units, (give or take a character here and there), pulling mainly one other faction and gave a few of them some unique profiles only in that NA-2 list, but those units remained within their faction. There is little to suggest it would be anything different for Triumvirate. Also the whole idea that Tohaa will be taken out of production because of the SKU issue that Ariadna and Pan-O ran into is also unwarranted. Those armies were butting up on 4 Sectorials and needing shelf space for all of them. Tohaa do not have any Sectorials. As for Carlos's comments on a galactic upset which would make the uprising seem small, why should we assume it is dire news for the Tohaa? Tohaa taking a beating would hardly be a big upset. In the current scheme of things Tohaa do not play a big enough roll in the Human Sphere for that to matter. However, if the great unifying threat of the EI takes a large hit, their could be a huge upset as the pressure is taken off. Yu-Jing could see itself freed up enough to launch a greater conflict against Pan-O for its role in the JSA uprising, and every other faction could jump in trying to slice out greater influence in the Sphere for themselves. Heck if it is a great upset for Pan-O, the likes of what Uprising was for Yu-Jing, then the power balance in the sphere would be completely reversed. All we know at the moment is that this upset will be galactic and that Shasvastii and Triumvirate will likely be heavily involved, so let us not forget what the Triumvirate were able to collapse a worm hole, and redirect the ship traveling through it.
I agree with you on how CB communicate to us, This Area 51 type of communication is why there is so! much speculations, I wish they would release more information but at the same time I understand why they do what they do.
I am not sure that we do agree, though I may be misunderstanding your comment. My point was that Carlos said at the start of the year that there would not be anything for Tohaa in 2018 because their design team was focused on the 5 new Sectorials which were coming out. In the roughly 3 years I have been playing CB has done a great job communicating what is coming, while also holding some things back as a surprise. With all the seminars they run throughout the year, we generally know what is coming months in advance with only January and February up in the air, and even then we can make pretty good guess at what will be coming. IA being the likely Sectorial to be released in one of those months. The doom and gloom speculation this year seems to come from CB followed through on something that had been in the background since at least N2 and had the JSA break away from Yu Jing.
For the most part I was talking about how CB communicated on the Triumvirate. I feel they could have done a better job on that one, I saw very little information on that or I missed it. Yes! CB do tell us things in advance. but there are some things I feel they could tell a little early. But my main post on the topic was I don't understand all the doom and gloom in the Tohaa part of forum.
It's the (hypothetical) sectorial based around the various "exalted" servant-species - chaksa, symbiobeasts, and presumably a bunch of other stuff we haven't seen yet. It's not something that really has enough coverage to make meaningful speculation about yet.
Thanks for the quick answer. A sectorial in that vein could have a good number of fascinating units' designs. Plus a whole bunch of species models.
For my part, I've never bought this explanation (I have no evidence to back that up, just my gut feeling which I admit is pretty worthless). But if it is true that Tohaa take more time to design (than all the CA designs that came out this year) and not a statement about cost/benefit based on the fact that Tohaa units will only sell to a limited number of players, vs. CA which sell better and are more highly played, it's still consistent with the idea that resources are limited, and they have to make choices. One possible outcome to improve support for all of the sectorials (including sectorials involving tohaa units) would be a sharing of the profiles used in multiple factions/sectorials. NA2 was basically all about this. I think that's why we see Triumvirate in NA2 instead of Tohaa- they can broaden appeal for Tohaa profiles at low risk adding to the overhead. I can't speak to others, but my position has been they will stay in production (maybe losing a unit or two, ala JSA), but be moved into sectorials/factions where they will get more use (probably as part of CA, as per previous threads). This makes tremendous sense in terms of cost efficiency and player support (more releases are more useful to more armies/players), and also makes sense from a story perspective. Some have argued effectively that I have it backwards, that Tohaa will fold in some part of CA instead of the other way around. It'd be an interesting strategy, and pretty consistent with the JSA departure, so I could see that serving much the same purpose. I think we should assume very little. But if we are speculating, having a CA HVT on the cover of their new book, with the Tweet: "They're Back" followed by the question "Should we be scared?" answered with "Maybe. Do you want to die?" sure sounds like the EI is coming to get the HS, not the other way around. I don't think they want to release pressure, I think they want to add to it. The Year of the Aliens starting off with Aliens lose doesn't sound right to me. Totally agree - I think this speculation is what they want at CB to build hype for what's coming. We'll all know soon enough.
I got some custom food stands made for an event with a secret #tohaamasterrace ingredient :P I do hope Tohaa stay around but until then I'm going to build up Arti's empire to take over the human sphere!!!
There is no proof of it, just demotivated people thinking that after 10 months of non releases, Let's just wait for the Tohaa news at 2019 :D
We were told we would have "our time" by 2018. Then we just got the picture of a graveyard. We were told we would get the Exalted Sectorial. Then it was replaced by Triunvirate. We were told Triunvirate would be the first Tohaa Sectorial. Then they told that Triunvirate will be a NA2 Sectorial. Sectorial armies are disappearing because they don't sell well and aren't played much, and Corvus has problems with SKU's bloat. Tohaa is selling less and less, and it's played less and less. Not a proof "per se", but things doesn't look promising.
Pretty much sums up how I feel about all this gloom and doom on the tohaa subforum. The ALEPH subforum in which I hand out as well is much more Joyous. And already was Joyous months before Vedic was even teased.
You are totally right, but it's the first time a faction (and yes, Tohaa is a faction for me) will get nothing within a time span over a year. We don't get any information what will happen and that this leads to fears that Tohaa will be extinguished. One word of CB that this will not happened will be enough for the most of us.
I do agree with you on CB poor communication when it comes down to Tohaa and I'm with you on the Triunvirate thing, but can we wait for the bad news or good new on when it comes down to CB doing away with Tohaa, IMO: I don't see CB doing away with Tohaa, their not doing away with factions because no one is not playing the faction, Yes! it is because of SKU's but most of all they are a small company and don't have the staff to keep up with the demand of new and old factions, It don't make sense to make yourselves upset on a what might be, relax and wait to see what will happen. If it's bad news that you don't like then go all out and I will be there with you all, but CB did say 2019 is Tohaa's year, Lets wait and see.
From watching interviews and presentations with Carlos, I don't think they know what to do with Tohaa from a lore or a gameplay perspective. So, I think CB just made a 'business decision' and they chose to focus their efforts on larger factions and pushing out Aristeia! aggressively while putting anything Tohaa (and to the same extent Shasvastii) on the back burner until they get around to it.
This seems to be most likely. It might also fuel the faction to be redone or fusion into other factions (Combined & NA-2).